Local Suds: 5 Minnesota beers to drink in June

Get a cupholder on your bike, you degenerates, because we’re drinking outside for the next three months. These are the days of skateboarding, Sea Salt, and Open Streets. Time to get sunkissed and suck down the season’s freshest beers.

Wheat beers, sours, pale ales, motherfuckin’ kolsches—the options for outdoor enjoyment are mounting as local brewers get more and more creative. It’s actually getting harder and harder to settle on one option. That’s why Local Suds is here. This month, put these new releases at the front of your cooler queue.

Able Better SelvesIPA, 4.4% ABV, n/a IBU

Oats go a long way in IPAs. A little in the malt bill, and all of a sudden, you’ve got a soft sipper on your hands. Better Selves, the new core offering NE IPA from northeast Minneapolis' Able Seedhouse + Brewery, makes great use of oats to complement its juicy blend of under-the-radar hops. At 4.4% ABV, it’s a lot easier to approach than your run-of-the-mill haze bomb. Six of these go down on an easy afternoon, so you can get your daily dose of high-alpha acids without worrying about waking up woebegone. Able will be releasing their next limited release, a pink guava and mango sour called No Doy, on June 29.

Surly Grapefruit SupremeSour ale, 4.5% ABV, n/a IBU

Surly first released Grapefruit Supreme as part of their Summer Pack, but the radler-inspired ale was so popular that it’s getting a solo release. Starting June 17, you’ll be able to pick up six packs of Grapefruit Supreme for your canoeing, sunbathing, and volleyballing pleasure. Cuttingly tart but immensely refreshing, this beer is a definite conversion experience. Even if you detest beer, Grapefruit Supreme will find a place in your calloused heart. How can you say no to this fresh-squeezed sizzler?

56 Fuzzi Lil’ PuckerSour ale, 4.5% ABV, 13 IBU

If you took a peach and ran it through a Vitamix, it would look just like 56 Brewing’s new Fuzzi Lil’ Pucker. The hyper-tart sour ale is loaded with pureed Oregon peaches, giving it a biteably thick body. You can nearly taste the fuzz on this one. You also get plenty of that bright, lacto sour sitting right along the fruit, reminding you that, hey, this is a beer after all. Fuzzi Lil’ Pucker made its debut last year at 56’s Northeast taproom, but this year’s reformulation can be plucked off shelves in six packs starting this month.

Fulton Solar VortexSession ale, 3.8% ABV, 10 IBU

Fulton brewed a winner in their Grapefruit Lonely Blonde, and now the North Loop brewery is taking another crack at fruit-infused success with their new blood orange ale Solar Vortex. Uber sessionable at 3.8% ABV, this low-weight ale leaks grapefruit and blood orange pith aroma the second you pop the tab. It goes down seamlessly, finishing with dryness that beckons sip after sip. If you’re the kind of drinker who started your beer journey on tart kettle sours, Solar Vortex will be an easy transition.

Modist Into ItLager, 4.5% ABV, n/a IBU

If you’ve ever had a raspberry lime rickey, you’re probably from the same slice of the Northeast corridor as me. If you haven’t, fear not, North Loop’s Modist Brewing has brewed a lager that tastes just like the iconic New England drink. Their flashy new Into It combines fresh raspberry and lime into a fizzy nontraditional lager made for patio drinking and charcoal-grilled hot dogs. Despite those East Coast roots, this beer is made with 100% Minnesota-grown pilsner malt, but good luck tasting it in all the fruit flavor.

Brewers interested in being featured in Local Suds should email jgfagerberg@gmail.com.